


Out of Order

by memorizingthedigitsofpi



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, canon compliant up to the end of 3x07, fairytales do come true?, written because of THAT PICTURE for 3x08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-05-01 10:10:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5201924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memorizingthedigitsofpi/pseuds/memorizingthedigitsofpi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma was a logical woman, a woman of science. She knew about cause and effect, correlation not implying causation, and the order of operations, amongst other things. The problem is, love isn't logical and sometimes operations are done out of order. When it comes to Fitz, she didn't realize the effect, so how could she know the cause?</p><p>Sometimes correlation <b>does</b> equal causation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Order

Jemma pursed her lips and frowned slightly, resting her chin on her palm. She was sitting at her old station in the lab, trying to feel like she belonged there, but that wasn't what was making her frown.

Pressing her lips a bit tighter together, she tried not to be completely obvious as she stared at Fitz.

They'd reached an understanding, of sorts, after she'd given him her phone. Ostensibly, she'd done it so that he could access her research on the planet and use it to help them reopen a portal there, but that was a secondary concern for her. Her primary concern was letting Fitz know _exactly_ how much she cared for him. She'd tried any number of times since coming back (and even once before ... leaving), but he never seemed to understand the _full depth_ of what she was saying. She just didn't have the words to express how much he was a _part_ of her.

Really, pouring her heart out to her phone when she'd thought she was going to die alone on an alien planet had been the closest she'd ever come to saying it right, and even then...

Her face softened as she watched him lean in and squint at his monitor, his hands pounding rapidly on his keyboard. How had she not realized sooner? 

She let out a breath of laughter and shook her head slightly. When she actually sat down to think about it, they'd done the whole process backward. No wonder she hadn't noticed.

The expected course of action in these situations, the one she'd been vaguely looking forward to when she thought about such things, was:

  1. meet someone attractive to you
  2. go on a date with them
  3. kiss
  4. fall in love
  5. spend the rest of your lives together



She and Fitz, on the other hand, had muddled the whole process completely. They'd gone from meeting each other to spending their lives together in almost no time at all and using none of the intervening steps. Was it any wonder she hadn't noticed herself falling in love? There was no actual "falling" because her loving him had been a fact for as long as she could remember knowing him.

Logically, she knew that there must have been some period of time after they'd met where they just knew each other and she didn't feel like he was an integral piece of her, but her memory failed her miserably. She only remembered the fact that he seemed less than enamored of _her_ , right at first.

It was almost enough to make her believe in love at first sight.

Almost.

But that would be ridiculous! ... Wouldn't it?

Tilting her head slightly, she continued to study his face. He was frowning at his screen and biting his lip, and any moment now... Ah. There it was. Swiping his right hand across his lips. She raised her own hand up and touched her lips gently, pretending they were...

She breathed in a deep breath and forced herself to blink. Staring at him wasn't going to get her anywhere. The phone had helped, and their sunrise conversation had cleared things up a bit more, at least. She remembered how he'd tried to give her an excuse to take back her words, and her eyes clouded with tears. Honestly. It broke her heart how little he really expected her to want him, and she had no idea how to make him believe.

They were _FitzSimmons_. They completed each other. It was a fact. It was as true to her as the atomic number of Thulium or the number of bones in the human body, and she hoped with every fiber of her being that they always would be.

She went through her mental list of the steps for a happily-ever-after and checked off each one.

  1. meeting Fitz: the most brilliant and handsome man she'd ever known
  2. spending her life from the age of 17 with him and intending to spend her life with him til she died
  3. realizing that she was utterly and completely in love with her best friend in the world
  4. going on what was probably the most romantic date in the history of dates (except for the part where she ruined things, but that wasn't Fitz's fault)



So that just left one thing.

Taking another deep breath, she pushed herself up from her workstation.

When he'd confessed his feelings in the pod, she'd been so shocked she hadn't known what to say and when he woke up everything was terrible. When she returned from her mission in Hydra, she'd tried not to push too hard and they'd barely spoken for weeks. She'd _finally_ managed to start the conversation, only to be interrupted by Director Coulson, and then their dinner plans had been demolished by...

She shook her head and pressed her lips in a determined line. No. Now wasn't the time to dwell on the past. She pushed her shoulders back and ran a self-conscious hand through her hair, vacillating unsurely and shifting her weight from one foot to the other. The longer she waited, the harder it was going to be. If she'd learned anything in the last year and a half, it was that.

There's no time like the present.

"Fitz?"

 

 


End file.
